Thursday night’s screening at the Saint James Cavalier Valletta of the global fishing film, “End of the Line”, went down with quite a storm.  Government officials, including the Minister of the Environment, Honourable George Pullicino; NGO representatives, fishing industry representatives and the public were in attendance, and so were Charles Clover (the lead actor in the movie), Rashid Sumaila of the University of BC and Craig Dahlgren of the Perry Insitute, both contributors to the film.

Malta was exemplified as being one of the key countries involved in the unsustainable fattening farms of wild caught tuna in the Mediterranean, where wild blue fin tuna are fattened and killed before having the chance to spawn, thereby destroying the future sustainability of the resource.With respect to sustainable management of blue fin tuna stocks, it is as if we are bolting in the opposite direction, like out of control unbridled horses leading themselves and others to destruction.

Malta will be opposing efforts by the United Kingdom and the European Union to get an Appendix 1 listing at the upcoming conference at CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); sets controls on movement of animal and plant species that are, or may be, threatened due to excessive commercial exploitation) later this month, it is as if we visualise an endless pot of gold that never runs out, when in reality it’s a finite biological resource that is scientifically proven to be running out.  And when will this ancient fish dry up is the big question on everyone’s lips if the drainage continues.  For so far we are relying on the integrity of the government and the fishing industry to manage this fish and herein lies the question they can answer too well, “how to decimate a species and make millions of dollars in doing so”?

The screening was hosted by Friends of the Earth Malta, Global Ocean and Nature Trust Malta